Shut Up And Sing

I was told not long ago that I can't talk the way I do
Singers shouldn't share their current affairs or worldly views
Sayin' something off the wall just might bend folks outta shape
Hard workin' people spend their paychecks to show up and escape
So put a plug in what you think
Man, shut up and sing

So I pulled out my guitar and I gave it a strum
And I thought about the way I'd lay it out there if one
Lone song was all I had to make it all make half-sense
To put some heart back on the forefront, collective consciousness
Can't be dead as my six strings
I wondered what would I shut up and sing
Then it hit me

Shut up and sing, Lord, have mercy on all us earthly fools
There's poison in our rhetoric and bullets in our schools
So I'll sing what the hell is going on around here
Let's take these blinders off our eyes and pull the cotton from our ears
Until somebody says something and means something
I'll shut up and sing

Sometimes saying nothing says it all and then some more
Conjecture causes bull and fuels unnecessary wars
Poets know hiding the truth somewhere between the lines
Somehow makes it seem worth more for those looking to find
Some answers to the troubles this life brings so
They shut up and sing

Shut up and sing, Lord, forgive us for we know not what we do
There's shouting from the mountains down to south border towns too
Shut up and sing, what the hell is going on around here
Let's take these blinders off our eyes and pull the cotton from our ears
'Til somebody says something that means something
I'll shut up and sing

Songs got ways of going places folks have never been
From one side of the world, 'round and 'round and back again
Universal unity ain't realistic, naw
Aw, but who says we can't run one for the hell of it all?
You never know how true a melody might ring
'Til you shut up and sing